21 Tips For Leading A Growing Company From FORBES’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups

November 14

[“21 Tips For Leading A Growing Company From FORBES’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups” originally appeared in Forbes and is written by Tanya Klich.]

The founders and CEOs featured in Forbes’ second annual list of Next Billion-Dollar Startups have built rapidly-growing companies (some in just two or three years) while bringing groundbreaking solutions to market. Scott Crouch, founder of Mark43, for example, leverages software to provide instant data to police departments–systems that can empower first responders and improve safety.

Chieh Huang, founder of Boxed, is changing the way millennials shop for bulk items via app technology. He also made headlines this year when he announced that Boxed would pay for all employee weddings. A year earlier, he’d already agreed to pay for their college tuitions.

The founders and CEOs featured in Forbes’ second annual list of Next Billion-Dollar Startups have built rapidly-growing companies (some in just two or three years) while bringing groundbreaking solutions to market. Scott Crouch, founder of Mark43, for example, leverages software to provide instant data to police departments–systems that can empower first responders and improve safety.

Chieh Huang, founder of Boxed, is changing the way millennials shop for bulk items via app technology. He also made headlines this year when he announced that Boxed would pay for all employee weddings. A year earlier, he’d already agreed to pay for their college tuitions.

“My parents taught me if you’re going to do well in this country, you better give back,” Huang told Forbes in a video interview. The perks, he said, are an investment into building a loyal workforce.

Of course, hiring and training a qualified workforce is equally important. Sam Shank, founder of travel deal website HotelTonight suggests: “Train your people to constantly question. ‘Yes people’ are a greater threat to your company than any competitor.”

But many of these founders agree the most important key to becoming a successful company leader involves tweaking your own mindset.

“Be nice,” says Rob Solomon, CEO of crowdfunding platform Gofundme. “It’s so easy to fall into the trap of copying bad habits from bosses you have worked for…” We asked Solomon and other leaders featured in Next Billion Dollar Startups: What advice do you have for someone new to running a company?

“Hire good, loyal people and keep moving … On the ‘keep moving’ part, technology by its very nature is ever-evolving. So the minute you think you’ve figured it out, is the minute you’ve marked your decline.”

– Chieh Huang, co-founder of Boxed, which offers direct delivery of bulk-sized packages that its customers order via app or online.

“The first is just getting your product out into the market above worrying about all the other elements. You can always change your branding or hire lawyers, but it’s critical that you figure out if you have product market fit, and if you don’t, figure out how to course correct without getting stuck.”

– Payal Kadakia, co-founder of ClassPass, which allows subscription customers to sign up for unlimited classes in everything from Pilates, cycling, boxing and boot camps to aerial yoga, pole dancing and underwater spinning via an app.